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House Transportation Committee concurs with bill to limit green lights on public highways
Summary
The Montana House Transportation Committee unanimously concurred with Senate Bill 111 after adopting an amendment that places restrictions on flashing, rotating or continuous green lights, limiting them to snow-removal equipment operated by government agencies and incident commanders. The bill will advance to the House floor for second reading.
The Montana House Transportation Committee unanimously concurred in Senate Bill 111 during executive action, adopting an amendment that narrows permitted uses of flashing, rotating or continuous green lights on public highways.
The amendment, numbered SB111.001.003, places the green-light provisions into an existing statutory section that governs special restrictions on vehicle lamps. Committee staff member Casey told members the change integrates green lights into the statute that already regulates driving a vehicle on a highway with certain lamps.
"This amendment includes green lights into a section of current statute that is related to driving or moving a vehicle on a highway with certain types of lamps," Casey said. He described the covered lights as "flashing, rotating or continuous" and said the provision is intended to limit their use to government-operated snow-removal equipment and on-scene incident commanders.
Vice Chair Bowne moved the amendment; Vice Chair Baum moved that the committee concur in Senate Bill 111 as amended. The committee adopted the amendment by voice vote, and then concurred in the bill by voice vote. Committee members voting by proxy and recorded as voting aye included Representatives Cafaro, Fitzpatrick, Sullivan, Cochran, Darling and Sprunger; no no votes or abstentions were recorded in the transcript. Chair Durham announced the concurrence and that Representative Cochran will carry the bill on the House floor.
Because the amendment places the green-light language into an existing lamp-restrictions statute, the bill's sponsor and staff said the change avoids creating a separate, potentially fragmented section of code. The committee did not take further action beyond concurring in the amended bill; the measure will advance to the House floor for second reading.
The transcript shows the committee handled the item during its executive-action portion and recorded the voice votes, including several proxy ayes; no roll-call tally with a numerical breakdown was provided in the record.
